The City of Gold and Cats

Hello again, everyone! Hope you've all been doing well~ Cinnamon and I are slowly adjusting to life here in Japan, but it's hard to get used to. Things are so different in Tokyo compared to small town St Augustine life. For one, there are a lot more trains. But that's okay, because riding the train is so far one of my favorite aspects of Japan. We ride the same one every day, since it goes to all the major stops. It's fast, it's easy, and you hardly ever have to wait more than a few minutes for one to pull up! Here comes one now -

That's the JR Yamanote train pulling into Yurakucho station. It took us back to Meguro yesterday after our excursion to Ginza. Ginza is where a lot of banks and financial buildings are located, but because it is also home to Sanrio's flagship store, we decided to pay it a visit anyway.

Of course, it took us about an hour of wandering aimlessly before we finally found the building it was in. And during that time, we met a businessman at a crosswalk who wanted to talk to us in English. He asked us where we were from and if we were enjoying Japan, He'd even been to Florida with his son - they went to Disney World. Eventually, we parted ways and he told us he hopes we enjoy our trip.

Finally, while looking for a bench on which to sit down and eat some snacks we had purchased at the 7-11, we passed a sign with Hello Kitty on it, so after taking a quick snack break, we went inside. And here are the pictures I have of what was outside of that building.

These buildings are in Nishi Ginza (nishi meaning west) and were at the intersection of some very busy streets. I don't know what most of those buildings are, but there's Olympus and Nikon's at the bottom of that Fujiya building. Here's another shot of it.

It's still hard to see Nikon, but it's there. Also, you can see a sign for Big Echo, which is a pretty big karaoke chain in Japan. I see them all over the place.

Across the street was this Sony building... and some sort of giant advertisement for wind power? I'm not exactly sure on that one.

Here, through the trees is the Nishi Ginza shopping center. It's located underneath an elevated freeway and it houses the Sanrio Gift Gate - a wonderful store filled with all kinds of Hello Kitty and related merchandise. Cinnamon and I both walked away with something from there, but luckily didn't spend too much. We'll probably be back, though.

Across from the shopping center in an alley next to a tiny little park, we found this guy here. I didn't realize when I took the picture, his tongue was out, haha. But since I know you guys don't care so much about stray cats in Tokyo, here's someone you do know! (And she'll probably kill me for posting this picture).

It's Cinnamon standing next to... some statue outside the Nishi Ginza shopping center. I don't know what the statue's there for. Probably historic or something.

Lastly, we have this little side street we walked down to get back to the station. Cinnamon said she liked it, so she made me take a picture of it. It was full of tiny little bars and small restaurants.

I haven't uploaded the pictures from today's trip to Ikebukuro Sunshine City, so those will have to wait until our next update, Definitely look forward to it~!